Modern cellular telephone systems currently utilize high power, frequency, time and/or code division multiplexed narrowband radio frequency communication techniques in conjunction with large cells to establish and maintain telephone communications. With the growing popularity of mobile stations configured for operating in these systems, increased flexibility in user utilization of these mobile stations is desired. One approach to providing user flexibility while encouraging greater utilization of the mobile stations is by providing low-power private base stations over which a user can register his or her mobile station and make and receive telephone calls. A private base station shares the same frequency bands with large cells, but operates at a greatly reduced power level. Also, each private base station has a landline subscriber telephone number through which all incoming and outgoing calls are routed.
Although systems employing private base stations currently exist that can support registration of multiple mobile stations, a call received at a private base station for any one of mobile stations registered with this base station causes all mobile stations registered with the base station to be similarly alerted. While this type of operation has been generally satisfactory in the past when the likelihood of only one or two mobile stations would be registered with a private base station at any given time, it is now technically feasible and desirable to provide a system for operation of a private base station which accommodates many more mobile stations and at the same time provides an alerting signal for a mobile station only when an incoming call is received for this station.
Some proposals for improved cellular communications disclose various cellular networks that work in association with a private base station. In U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,353,331 and 5,469,496, to Emery et al., the advanced intelligent network wireline system connects to and controls processing of calls to a service subscriber's wireless handset via a homebase station or a wireless communication network. The network uses data to route the call to a current location and provide instruction data to the landline network and/or a mobility controller and extend a request for special service to the calling subscriber.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,127,042 and 5,463,674, to Gellig et al., when a cellular cordless telephone is within range of a cordless base station, telephone calls can be made over the cordless radio channel or transferred from the cellular radio channels to the cordless radio channel. Telephone calls may be made over the cellular radio channels or transferred from the cordless radio channel to one of the cellular telephone channels.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,442,680 to Schellinger, discloses a system that reduces the amount of time spent in monitoring a sub-data channel of limited coverage area with a personal base station. A signal is generated which represents the period of time spent monitoring the radio channel. An adjusted value of a monitoring time value is compared to a value of a timing signal, and when an adjusted monitoring time value equals or exceeds a timing signal value, the monitoring of the radio channel ceases.
Other proposals show various cellular and wireless communication systems using a private base station where various mobile stations can communicate with each other through the private base station, and where a plurality of base stations transmit distinctive identification signals.
None of these prior art proposals, however, allow signaling in the cellular network such as is common in the public-switched telephone network. Many of the special features available only through the local switch and via the wire-line public-switched telephone network are not available through the cellular network and through a private base station. To reform the cellular network to support the signaling would be expensive.